What They Call Sin

by Philippa Grey-Gerou

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  Linden Bay Romance, LLP

  www.lindenbayromance.com

  Copyright ©2005 by Philippa Grey-Gerou

  First published by Linden Bay Romance, LLP, June 2005

  * * *

  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

  * * *

  WHAT THEY CALL SIN

  Published by Linden Bay Romance, 2005

  Linden Bay Romance, LLP, UK

  Bury, England

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-905393-02-4

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

  PDF, PRC & HTML

  Copyright © PHILIPPA GREY-GEROU, 2005

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The work is protected by copyright and should not be copied without permission. Linden Bay Romance, LLP reserves all rights. Re-use or re-distribution of any and all materials is prohibited under law.

  This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events or locales is coincidental.

  Edited by M. Morpeth.

  Cover art by Beverly Maxwell.

  WHAT THEY CALL SIN

  PHILIPPA GREY-GEROU

  Chapter 1

  Lindy poked disinterestedly at her salad, letting her companions’ conversation flow over her. Jade and Cara were good friends, but their lives were so different from hers that sometimes she couldn't help wondering why they were even acquaintances. They both had careers of their own, Jade as a software designer and Cara as an interior decorator. They both were mothers of young children, with all the boasts and complaints that went along with that. They both had lives of their own.

  Lindy just had Gabriel.

  As though reading Lindy's mind, Jade turned to her. “So, where is Gabriel taking you for your anniversary this year? It was Tahiti last year, wasn't it?"

  Lindy nodded, nibbling half-heartedly at her lunch. “This year we're just going to Aruba. He can't be gone from work too long, so we can't go far."

  "Kathleen Fallon just went to Aruba,” Cara said, sipping at her iced tea.

  Jade rolled her eyes. “Who'd she go with this time?"

  Cara grinned. “Not the same person she came back with."

  Lindy drifted out of the conversation again as her friends fell into their favorite hobby of discussing Kathleen Fallon's indiscretions. She actually liked Kath, but she didn't want to get into an argument with them. She saw them little enough as it was.

  That's when she noticed him.

  He was sitting a few tables away, a coffee and the New Yorker on the table in front of him. But he was paying no attention to either, his intense gaze instead locked on her. He was handsome in an almost feminine way, high cheekbones and black, wavy hair emphasizing his pale eyes.

  Disconcerted, she glanced quickly away, trying to focus on the conversation at her table. But whenever her eyes flicked back, which they did often now, he was still watching her.

  His attention made her feel uneasy, but she couldn't stop looking his way. What was he doing? What was he thinking?

  He waited until he was sure he had her attention before allowing his eyes to scan slowly up and down her body before meeting her own again, his lower lip caught between his teeth. Lindy spun back to the table, blushing furiously. Okay, she knew what he was thinking.

  She was just working up the courage to look back and see what this forward man was doing now when Jade and Cara startled her by pushing away from the table. “Wait!” she protested. “Where are you going?"

  They both looked at her in confusion. “Shopping, remember?” Cara said with her usual impatience. “You needed new shoes to go with your dress for the party on Wednesday?"

  Jade looked more concerned. “Are you alright?"

  "I'm fine. I just...” Lindy floundered until she saw a waiter go by with the dessert tray. “I want dessert first. You don't mind, do you?"

  "Oh!” Cara dropped back into her chair. “This place has the chocolate cake everyone says is better than sex."

  Lindy and Jade laughed, and Jade sat back down. “Well, if you think it's better than sex, it must be good,” Jade teased. “I'm in."

  "Great!” Lindy flagged down their server and ordered three slices of the ganache cake, aware of the good looking stranger still studying her.

  Cara was right, the pastry was to die for. Lindy couldn't help moaning softly as the first taste of it hit her tongue. “Oh my god, that's the best thing ever!"

  She didn't hear her friends’ noises of agreement, for at that moment she glanced over at her admirer. His playful expression was gone, replaced with an erotic fervor that heated through her.

  Feeling suddenly brazen, she lifted another forkful to her mouth, slowly closing her lips over it to slide it off the tines, making a show of her tongue as she cleaned all the chocolate carefully from the fork. His eyes never moved as he watched her with darker intensity.

  And then suddenly his own tongue flashed out to run slowly over the contours of his lips in sensual promise.

  Lindy's fork clattered to her plate as the sensation she hadn't been able to name before burst forth as full blown arousal. He noticed her reaction, grinning ferally at the power he knew he had over her now.

  She pushed quickly away from the table, startling her companions. “I have to go to the ladies room,” she muttered faintly. “I'll be right back."

  If they acknowledged her departure, she wasn't aware of it.

  She managed not to race to the restroom. It was a single unit, so she was justified in throwing the lock behind her before leaning against the door and looking at herself in the mirror for the first time. She was shocked at what she saw. That couldn't be her, face flushed and eyes wide and dilated. She knew it was reaction to him, to a complete stranger who had never even said hello to her. What was wrong with her?

  The soft knock on the door sent a flood of excitement through her again. Lindy waited for the woman's query she knew wasn't coming. Her body knew who was on the other side of the door, moisture soaking her panties and dampening her thighs, preparing her.

  Unable to stop herself, she reached out and unlocked the door.

  He opened the door and quickly slipped in, closing it behind him silently so as not to draw attention. She stood frozen, her breath already coming more quickly as she read his arousal in the darkness of his cobalt eyes and the bulging line of his trousers. The knowledge that he wanted her as much as she wanted him electrified her.

  When he reached out to wrap his hand around the back of her neck and draw her closer, her mouth was already open to welcome his kiss.

  She had never been unfaithful to Gabriel. She just didn't have casual sex, had even waited for marriage to give up her virginity, as unfashionable as that may have been. None of that mattered with this man. He pushed her back against the door, his hands already working the buttons on her blouse as he kissed her hungrily. She responded with eager abandon, her tongue toying with his as her hands skirted over his back and into his hair. Nothing in the world mattered except this man's hungry mouth, his eager hands exploring, the feel of his erection pressing into her.

  It wasn't enough. She needed to feel more of him, all of him.

  She wriggled against him for friction, nearly swooning at the soft growl this elicited from him. Her hands fumbled with his fly as he bent his head to tongue along her cleavage before nibbling at her peaked nipple through the satin and lace
of her bra, making her cry out in surprise. He clawed her skirt up as she finally got his fly open, his heavy cock falling into her hand, unhampered by any undergarments. She whimpered as his fingers prodded against the thin barrier of her panties, searching for purchase, and then suddenly he was lifting her, pressing her back against the door as the fabric was pushed away and the firm, generous head of his cock found its home in her entrance.

  For an instant they froze, his dark blue eyes locked with hers as though really seeing her for the first time, and then he was pushing his full length into her, deliberately, demandingly, unhesitatingly. She clutched at his shoulders, her head back against the door as he slowly filled her, keening encouragingly with a wantonness that would have shocked her ordinarily. Slowly he retreated and pushed back in, then again and again, building his pace until he was pounding her against the door. He buried his face in her throat, his mouth searching out the sensitive flesh of her pulse and her ears and her lips, all the while murmuring encouragement. “So beautiful, feels so good, push back, luv, yeah, that's it, that's just brilliant."

  He's British, she observed almost absently, the accent adding another layer of excitement for her. But she couldn't retain the thought as he fucked her harder. All her mind had room for was the incredible ecstasy welling up inside her, making her sob and curse and plead. He shifted his angle again and she lost all control. He barely got a hand over her mouth in time to keep her from screaming out loud, but he couldn't prevent her body from bucking violently against him.

  He slowed but never stilled his motions as the orgasm released her. Weak and limp, Lindy simply held him, enjoying the slow caress of his cock inside her clenching pussy. But his restraint only lasted so long, his pace quickly building until he was hammering deep into her again. “Come again for me, love,” he encouraged, his voice hoarse with his own desire. “Do it again."

  "I can't,” she started to protest, but her body proved her a liar, quickly building up and spilling over in another release, gentler but no less overwhelming.

  This time he didn't slow. “That's it,” he panted gutturally, “that's my girl."

  "Not your...” But suddenly his thumb was resting on her clit, working it with unrelenting pressure, and all words escaped her. This was like nothing she had ever experienced in her life, and she just surrendered to it, reveling in the bliss.

  He shuddered and gasped, and suddenly she could feel him coming inside her, his seed filling all the places his full cock couldn't. He jerked, pulsing inside her again and again, holding her close as the last vestiges of his orgasm washed over him. She felt his legs shake, and he turned to set her on the edge of the sink, the two of them just holding each other as reality slowly seeped back in.

  Finally he stepped away, leaving her feeling surprisingly bereft as he closed his trousers and began doing up the buttons of his shirt that she couldn't remember having undone. Following his lead, she slid to her feet, her skirt falling into place as she quickly closed her own blouse, her fingers shaking.

  He combed his fingers through his hair, checking himself quickly in the mirror, then turned to leave. He hesitated with his hand on the knob, not looking back. “Ta, love. It was fun."

  Lindy didn't find her voice again before the door shut behind him. “Yeah,” she said, her soft words echoing wistfully off the tile. “It was."

  Chapter 2

  When did love become obligation?

  When Lindy first met Gabriel, she thought only of the romance. She was in the last year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He was finishing up an MBA at Wharton while putting his Stanford law degree to work at the local offices of McDaniels Polk and Marks. He was handsome in a way that appealed to the artist in her, fair and well proportioned, fit and athletic and so very good looking. They met at the Beaux Arts Ball, the gala of the Philadelphia social season. He was a guest, she was the help. But from the moment he laid eyes on her, he monopolized her time, finding out everything he could about her, nearly getting her fired. He had apologized and made nice with the staff coordinator, sparing her unemployment. His date, understandably miffed, had insisted on being taken home early. Lindy had assumed that was the end to it.

  He tracked her down at school the next day and asked her out to dinner. She accepted.

  She had in no way been prepared for what he classified as a quiet dinner.

  Deux Cheminees was second only to Le Bec Fin as the elite of Philadelphia eateries. As a poor student, she never even bothered to notice such places, they were so far beyond her circle. But Gabriel had ushered her in, held her chair for her and introduced her to the true experience of fine dining. The interior of the place was comfortably masculine and domestic, and she felt very much like he'd brought her to his own home. He ordered for her, a fact for which she was grateful, and poured out glass after glass of wonderfully heady wine. He asked about her life, her art, her plans, sharing stories of all the places he had lived, traveling with his father in the State Department. And when he left her at the door to her apartment, more than a little tipsy, his single kiss was tender and thoughtful.

  In less than a month, they were seeing each other exclusively. By New Year's, they were engaged, and they married soon after she graduated.

  She had planned on continuing on to earn her MFA, had in fact already enrolled. But the firm that had invested so much in Gabriel's education was now seeing the return on that investment, and asked him to relocate to the Intellectual Property division of the New York office. He couldn't turn down the opportunity.

  So she gave up on the degree for the time being. When they got to New York, he bought her a small studio outright as a belated wedding gift.

  But she rarely saw the inside of it.

  Instead she was busy playing the attorney's wife, accompanying him to parties and fundraisers, hosting dinners, making friends with the other attorney wives. And suddenly five years had gone by, time in which she had never picked up a paintbrush, not even to redo the bathroom. And all the attention Gabriel had lavished on her in the early days of their marriage was redirected into work, the feeble attempts at quality time emphasizing rather than making up for his absence.

  And now she lay under him, naked, sweating, and wondering when sex with him had stopped being about love and started being about obligation.

  She gripped his shoulders as he undulated over her, keeping him elevated so as not to suffocate her. He was a big man, broad shouldered and barrel chested, overwhelming her much smaller form. She knew he was attractive, and she had always enjoyed his attentions before. But tonight, something was different.

  Tonight, she had something to compare him to.

  She closed her eyes and in her mind looked into cobalt blue eyes, dark with desire. The tip of her mysterious lover's tongue flicked out, briefly caught between perfect, white teeth, and he winked at her, that slow, suggestive wink that made so many promises and demands. Her whole body tightened in response.

  Gabriel moaned softly.

  In her memory, she felt strong, slender hands grab her, slam her back against the door, felt his tight lean body press into hers, his erection prodding the soft flesh of her belly. He fit her like he was made for her. She remembered the feel of his dark hair in her fingers, the eager hunger of his mouth. The satin of his bare skin, indistinguishable from the warm silk of her shirt.

  But mostly she remembered the intense desire he had, and that he generated in her.

  She mewled, her legs coming up to wrap high around Gabriel's waist. He growled and hitched himself closer, driving deeper into her, faster, harder.

  His voice came back to her, honey thick and erotic. “Come again for me,” he had demanded, insisting on her pleasure. “Do it again.” And she had. “My girl,” he had called her, and in that moment she had wanted it to be true.

  The memory of the moment and the natural responses of her body finally overwhelmed her, and she came hard, arching against her husband with a shatteri
ng cry.

  "Baby!” Gabriel grunted, slamming once, twice into her fluttering channel before exploding himself.

  Her mystery lover had held her afterwards, easing her back down to earth with soothing incoherencies and gentle touches. Gabriel kissed her lightly and rolled over to sleep.

  When did she start to resent her obligations?

  Chapter 3

  Lindy dressed carefully for the gala. Gabriel liked her to look her best for these events.

  It was two days since the encounter in the restaurant.

  Not that she was counting.

  She sighed, examining her makeup carefully. She hated these events. They were strictly see and be seen opportunities with little hope of any meaningful conversation. Tonight was in honor of the end of the city-wide United Way campaign, celebrating all the nickels and dimes they had squeezed out of the hourly wage slaves and a chance to pimp their bosses another five hundred a plate for the privilege of eating bland food with complete strangers. She just hoped the band was decent.

  She carefully outlined her mouth in red umber, then used a small brush to fill in with the lush red lip cream she had selected. She blotted gently and sat back to evaluate the results. Her chestnut hair was swept up and rolled into a tight French twist at the back of her head, pinned in place by two rhinestone-studded hair sticks, every hair smoothly in place. Her makeup was minimal, accenting the natural gold tan of her skin. When she had moved east from Oceanside, she had worked hard to retain her tan. Her mother had taken pity on her when she was a poverty stricken student in Philadelphia and paid for her weekly visits to a tanning salon. She still went at least once a week, twice in the winter. It was worth it to be able to avoid layers of foundation and blending. Instead, all she needed was a touch of bronzer to accent her cheek bones and then she could focus on her better features. Here eyes were outlined in soft charcoal, her lashes filled out with a light touch of mascara to draw out the brilliance of her green eyes. The glossy red of her mouth was dramatic without being gaudy. Everything was smooth and flawless. Absolutely perfect.